Customer care manager, Frank
Bateman receives the award.
AirAsia was honored with the ‘Customer Lover’ award by
Web In Travel (WIT) at the inaugural WITovation awards ceremony at the
Suntec Convention Centre last month, held in conjunction with the annual WIT
Conference.
WIT, a Singapore-based content and community platform for
the travel distribution, marketing and technology space, recognized the
airline’s innovative approach in engaging with guests via its interactive
one-stop help and information centre AskAirAsia, accessible at
airasia.com/ask.
AirAsia Regional Head of Customer Experience and
Technology, Zaman Ahmad said, “We are very happy and proud to win the
WITovation ‘Customer Lover’ award from Web In Travel. We’d like to thank WIT
for recognizing our efforts in providing guests with state-of-the-art but
uncomplicated solutions platform, in the form of AskAirAsia. We are always
on the move to introduce innovative methods to enhance our guests’
experience and ready to invest more in technology in order to adapt to their
needs.
“We realize that a vast number of our guests are
technologically savvy and familiar in the use of interactive media
platforms, thus it is necessary for us to leverage on this consumer trend of
interaction with us online. AskAirAsia caters to their need for immediate
solution and increases efficiency and reduces operating costs for us.
Available 24 hours daily, it also provides multiple contact points for
guests to easily get in touch with us and to know more about our products
and services.”
The WITovation awards are aimed at recognizing companies
or individuals which have made a difference in a chosen field, either
through a specific marketing campaign or an overall strategy, in the digital
travel space. AirAsia ousted closest contender Cleartrip, an online travel
portal, for the ‘Customer Lover’ award. AirAsia Customer Care Manager, Frank
Bateman was present at the ceremony to accept the award on behalf of
AirAsia.
The judging panel, led by Timothy O’Neil-Dunne, managing
partner of T2 Impact, said it came to a close call between AirAsia and
Cleartrip but they believe that AirAsia, with its reach and pedigree of
loving its customers, just edged out Cleartrip’s entry.
The judges said, “AirAsia’s approach is very
user-friendly and appeals to a wider market with varied demographics. The
use of a named Avatar (in AskAirAsia) gives the service a personality and
creates an online rapport with the user. This service exceeds customer
expectations regarding budget airlines where cheap equates minimal service.”
AskAirAsia, available free to anyone from anywhere in the world, is a
platform for guests to pose any question and engage with AirAsia via live
chat, webmail and twitter. As soon as a question or enquiry is received, it
would provide specific, tailor-fitted answers in real time through the use
of intelligent automated response technology.
